Tar Heels leading scorer Jackson opts for NBA Draft

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina's Justin Jackson looked into making the jump to the NBA last spring.

This year, after helping the Tar Heels to a national championship, he's all in for going to the next level.

Jackson announced Thursday through the university that he's putting his name into the NBA Draft and hiring an agent, thus ending the collegiate career for the 6-foot-8 swingman who was named the past season's Player of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a first-team All-American.

"I wouldn't trade anything the last three years as a Tar Heel, especially getting the chance to win a national championship, which was unbelievable," Jackson said in a statement. "I feel I made a good decision last year to come back for my junior year. That has put me in a much better position as a basketball player and a person. I'm proud to know I will always be a Tar Heel."

Jackson went from averaging 11.5 points and shooting 29.7 percent on 3-pointers during his first two seasons to a team-high 18.3 points per game while connecting on a program-record 105 shots 3-point range during what became his final season.

"What a year it was for him and our team," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said in a statement. "He did what our coaches and the NBA people advised him to do — get stronger and work on making more shots. He responded by investing a tremendous amount of his time in the offseason and came back to school a bigger, better and more confident player.

Williams praised the upgrades Jackson made on defense. Yet the player's 731 points are the second-most in a season in Williams' 14 seasons in charge.

Jackson became the 14th Tar Heel to receive ACC Player of the Year honors and is one of three (with Lennie Rosenbluth in 1957 and Ty Lawson in 2009) to win that award and help North Carolina to a national championship in the same season.

He led the Tar Heels in scoring (19.5 per game), field goals (41), three-pointers (15), assists (22) and steals (9) in North Carolina’s six NCAA Tournament victories this year.

With 239 points in NCAA Tournament games, he's second on the program's all-time list in that category.

Overall, he tallied 1,626 points in 118 career games. This season, he led the Tar Heels in scoring in 19 of 40 games, reaching double figures 37 times.

The Tar Heels will lose at least three of their top four scorers with Jackson joining departing seniors Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks.

The remaining NBA Draft questions involving the Tar Heels appear to be with yet-to-be announced decisions from junior guard Joel Berry and freshman post player Tony Bradley.